Kaposi's sarcoma: retrospective study of 67 cases with the classical form.

The records of 67 Israeli patients with classical Kaposi's sarcoma treated at Rambam Medical Center were analyzed retrospectively for clinical and laboratory data. As expected, all except 1 patient were of Jewish origin. There was a male predominance with a ratio of 2.2:1. The age of onset was mostly during the 5th to 7th decades of life. The course of the disease was usually slow and indolent. As has been already noted, we found a higher frequency of diabetes mellitus (16.4%). Although a high frequency of second primary malignancy was seen in our patients, this was less so than that described in an American series, 15% as compared to 37%, respectively. The most frequent second malignancy was that of the lymphoreticular system. No serologic evidence for an association with types of herpes virus infection has been found. No alterations in humoral and cellular immunity were demonstrated. These data show similar clinical findings with those described in other series, besides the lower frequency of a second primary malignancy. Some discordance with that described before concerning the relationship with cytomegalovirus infection and T cells subsets was also noted.